This photo was taken on a visit to an elephant sanctuary in Thailand in February 2026. This elephant had just come out of the river where it had been playing with the rest of the herd, and sprayed itself with sand and dirt. Apparently they do this to protect their skin against the sun, basic natural sun protection.
The image was captured with a Sony A6600 with a 28-70mm FE kit lens at 35mm 1/800s f5.6 ISO 400.
Editing: highlights, shadows, whites, blacks, vibrance, saturation and a little crop.